Posts By: Tim Linden
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Bee Sweet Citrus Continues to Thrive
Bee Sweet Citrus President Jim Marderosian first opened the doors of the company in 1987 as an independent packer and shipper of California oranges. As time progressed and consumer needs shifted, the citrus line expanded to include approximately 10 different varieties. Now a successful year-round operation, Bee Sweet ships throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, ...
Update from Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology
Five years ago, Western Growers launched its Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT), housed in the Taylor Farms building in downtown Salinas. WGCIT brings together the ag industry and firms operating in the technology space to actively work on some of agriculture’s most vexing problems. Below is update from some of the startups housed in ...
Inside Western Growers: A Look at WG Employee Champions
Founded in 1926, Western Growers represents local and regional family farmers growing fresh produce in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico. Western Growers provides a lobbying voice in state and federal government, affordable health benefits, technology and innovation development, transportation solutions, legal and human resources guidance and more. Behind the association are more than…
Update from the Center
aerialPlot aerialPLOT joined WGCIT at the beginning of March, and immediately kicked off its membership by hosting a two-day training session with a key multi-national client. aerialPLOT is a research company that integrates aerial sensors with other data sources to monitor real-time crop dynamics. In addition to operations covering row crops throughout the Midwest, aerialPLOT ...
UPDATE FROM THE CENTER
Five years ago, Western Growers launched its Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT), housed in the Taylor Farms building in downtown Salinas. WGCIT brings together the ag industry and firms operating in the technology space to actively work on some of agriculture’s most vexing problems.
UPDATE from the CIT
Five years ago, Western Growers launched its Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT), housed in the Taylor Farms building in downtown Salinas. WGCIT brings together the ag industry and firms operating in the technology space to actively work on some of agriculture’s most vexing problems. At any one time, there are about 50 firms operating ...
Groomed for Berries
Eric Reiter Vice President, California Operations Reiter Affiliated Companies LLC Oxnard, CA Member Since 1972 | Director Since 2019 The Background: Eric Reiter grew up in Santa Barbara, a short drive to the headquarters of Reiter Affiliated Companies LLC (RAC), in Oxnard, CA. As the eldest offspring of the fifth generation of his family to ...
Many Career High Points, But Life Brings Her Back to Ag
Director Profile: Alexandra Allen Principal Main Street Produce Santa Maria, CA Member Since 1988 | Director Since 2019 Alexandra Allen grew up in Salinas and is now married to a grower-shipper, Paul Allen, in Santa Maria. Those two end points suggest a life path much different than the one she took. In between Salinas and ...
2020 WG Chairman of the Board: Talley to ‘Embrace Change’ During Transition Year
While incoming Western Growers 2020 Chairman of the Board Ryan Talley does not expect there to be sweeping changes under his watch, he does note that it will be a transition year for the association and some change is inevitable. “I am very excited for Western Growers as we bring on board Dave Puglia as ...
Award of Honor: Tom Nassif A Natural Selection
Western Growers Chairman of the Board Ron Ratto, who also headed up the selection committee for the 2019 Award of Honor recipient, said selecting WG President/CEO Tom Nassif was as close to a no-brainer as there is. “How could we not acknowledge his service to Western Growers,” he said. “We know we are going to ...
Ag Career by Choice Not Birth
Franz De Klotz Richard Bagdasarian Inc. Mecca, CA Director Since 2019 | Member Since 2003 Unlike so many others in this industry, Franz De Klotz was not born into agriculture. His father was a physician and his mother a nurse. However, he did grow up in Fresno, CA, and always had an affinity for agriculture. ...
Update from the Center
Five years ago, Western Growers launched its Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT), housed in the Taylor Farms building in downtown Salinas. WGCIT brings together the ag industry and firms operating in the technology space to actively work on some of agriculture’s most vexing problems. An update from some of the startups housed in the WGCIT.
Western Growers Annual Meeting Navy SEAL Rob O’Neill To Keynote Major Luncheon
Rob O’Neill, who is one of the most highly-decorated combat veterans of our time and the author of the memoir “The Operator: Firing the Shots That Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior,” will be the keynote speaker at the Western Growers Annual Meeting in Desert Springs in late October. ...
IN MEMORIAM: Ernest J. (Ernie) Bontadelli 1925-2018
Ernie Bontadelli passed away peacefully at his home Friday, June 22, 2018, at the age of 92. He and his brother Charles were pioneers in the Brussels sprout industry on California’s central coast. Ernest Bontadelli was born in La Selva Beach, CA, on September 30, 1925. He continued to reside in that Santa Cruz County ...
Rick Lester Antle (1956 – 2018)
Rick Lester Antle, president and CEO of Tanimura & Antle, the largest lettuce and vegetable producer in the Salinas Valley, died after a brief battle with cancer on Saturday, April 14. He was 61. Mr. Antle was born on December 15, 1956, in Salinas, CA. He grew up in the family business as the grandson ...
Watermelon Firm Stands the Test of Time
CA Member Profile George Perry & Sons Manteca, CA Member since 1997 IN THE BEGINNING: In 1906, Delphino Perry arrived in the United States from his native Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal. He was 16 when he joined his father in California and began working on a small dairy farm in San ...
Back to His Roots
Rob Yraceburu President Wonderful Orchards, LLC Shafter, CA Member Since 1988 Director Since March 2016 FAMILY BACKGROUND: In the early 1920s, Rob Yraceburu’s great grandfather immigrated to the United States from Spain and began homesteading in the San Joaquin Valley on 160 acres of dry land west of Five Points. Of course, that was ...
Chemical Reregistration: Leaf Lettuces Get “New” Crop Protection Tool
With Western Growers’ help, Kerb SC Herbicide is now, once again, federally registered for use on leaf lettuces, and labels are available in both California and Arizona. The availability of this key crop protection materials is being lauded by the manufacturer—Dow AgroSciences—as well as by the grower community. “Western Growers has been working to make ...
WG Chairman Cox: A Man Ahead of His Time
When Larry Cox was a younger man, he fought a losing battle against the concept and eventual enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). As a grower in 1991, he invested in 300 acres in a Mexican growing area near Mexicali, the year before NAFTA was enacted. “When I was in college I ...
Zwillinger Family Dates Back Four Generations
Barry Zwillinger Co-owner Legend Produce Dos Palos, CA WG Member Since 1999 AN NYC BEGINNING: Back near the beginning of the previous century, Edward Zwillinger led generations of his family to the produce industry by first pushing a produce cart in New York City and then eventually opening up Zwillinger Company as a produce ...